Tonight's Plan
by trappedtraveler
Summary: Castle was trying to find the best plan for his date with Beckett. How would the night turn out? Stay tuned!
1. What Has He Done to Her?

Disclaimer: I don't own _Castle_, I just enjoy it too much. Then I found about this great site and the rest is history. Enjoy, folks!

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Kate Beckett decided put her paperwork aside for a moment. While removing some things to make space for it, her eyes could easily see an empty chair. At first, the thing never caught much of her attention when it was placed there by someone. A successful crime-mystery novelist that she secretly admired. A somewhat childish individual with a helpful outside-of-the-box way of thinking. A man named Richard Castle. Her boyfriend.

_Boyfriend_.

The word echoed in her head. As juvenile as it might sound, she couldn't deny that he was exactly her boyfriend. The thought of him smiling at her made Beckett blushed. She unconsciously twirled her hair, something she always does whenever she feels giddy.

Being with Castle was totally different for her. It's a new experience that she was willing to learn. That man wasn't easy to understand, too. He could be really annoying at one moment and turned into a really serious person the next second. Being with him was fascinating— even she wouldn't dare to deny it—although she would never say it out loud. His ego didn't need to be fed with anything else; he already got that covered anyway.

She turned to her notepad, trying to find a specific detail about the case she thought she missed in the first place. She just flipped the fourth page when her cell phone rang. An incoming call, from Rick Castle. She looked at the photo of them that she had set to be his caller ID.

"Beckett." She answered, trying so hard to sound normal.

"Jeez, Kate. Not so formal," she could hear him chuckle. "Have you finished?"

"Not yet. Because there's someone who only wants to help me solving the case, but not filling up the paperwork."

"He sounds like a bad man. Can you tell me where he lives? Because I need to teach him a lesson," his voice sounded serious.

She smiled. That was exactly the man she fell in love with. "Come on, Castle. What is it? I need to finish this ASAP so I can go home and…"

"And then we can have dinner. The plan's still on, right?"

"Of course. Why did you take off so early, anyway? You're not even here when I talked to Mr. Welch to tell him that his son's killer had been caught."

"I have to build a rock-solid plan. I don't want our dinner just to be a take-away from Mr. Cho or a couple burgers from Remy's."

"They sound good enough, though."

He scoffed. "Really? Why are you making this easy for me?"

"The difficult part would be _after _the dinner."

"Kate Beckett! You're still at work!" he pretended to be shocked. "But you know… for a split second there, I oddly hoped that you had put this call on speaker,"

"In your dreams, Castle. So, where are we going?"

"Why spill the beans now?" he teased.

"Fine. I gotta get back to this paperwork, okay? I'll call you as soon as I finish."

"Sure. See you,"

"See you, Castle,"

He whispered quickly before cutting off the call. "Love you."

Beckett knew that there was a silly grin on her face, but what she didn't know was the fact that Esposito and Ryan were actually paying attention to her every move from the moment she took the call.

"She fell so hard, bro," Esposito shook his head in disbelief.

Ryan nodded weakly. "What has Castle done to her?"

"I don't know. But one thing for sure, it's totally working."

"Totally."


	2. She's Not Just Some Other Woman

Castle had been sitting on his living room couch for almost two hours, trying to figure the best plan for his date with Beckett. He could easily call any restaurants in town and make reservation, but somehow he wanted this date to be special. Taking his date to a fancy dinner—with tux, dress, and all kinds of stuff—was way to plain for him. He couldn't do the same with Beckett. He felt that the woman deserved something more.

When he said to her that she was a mystery he thought he was never going to solve, he meant it. He knew that she didn't enjoy eating at an extravagant restaurant due to its tiny portion of meal, and he couldn't agree more on that. So, what would it be tonight?

God, he's stuck! He was completely out of ideas. He glanced at his watch; she could have finished her work and headed home to get ready.

Alexis went down the stairs and walked towards him. "Dad, I'm off to Paige's. Her parents asked me to have dinner with them. Where's Gram?"

"Out with her friends to see some painting exhibition along with dinner and God knows what else."

She looked at her beloved dad, who definitely seemed confused. "What is it, Dad? Wanna tell me something?" she sat beside him. "The date with Beckett is still on, right?"

He sighed. "I can't make any plans."

She frowned. "My Dad? Confused with making date plans?"

"This is Beckett we're talking about, Sweetie. Not just some other woman."

She smiled. She knew how special Beckett was to her father. "Why don't you just cook? Your Carbonara has got Gram's and my approval. It's like, super delicious. I know there's plenty of stuff in the fridge that you can cook. Shrimps, squids, broccoli, asparagus, tofu, you name it!"

He turned to his daughter. "You sure it's a good idea?"

"Dad, I've watched far too many romantic movies and read so many romance novels to know that a guy who can cook is sexy."

"My God," he whispered. "Since when did you grow up this fast?"

"Actually, it happened a long time ago," she got up. "I gotta go. I'm not looking forward to be late. Besides, this is the first time Paige and I made up after that drunk-too-much incident happened. I don't wanna miss this," she lowered down to land a kiss on his cheek. "I'll be home before midnight. Love you, Dad. Good luck with the date. You know better than me, anyway."

"Love you, too. Thanks,"

"Anytime, Dad. Anytime," then she walked out of the door.

Castle realized his daughter's advice was not bad at all; brilliant, even. Beckett might know that he could cook, but she had never tried any of his cooking. That night, he determined to impress her in a far easier—and tastier—way, if it's compared with sneaking into a place in Chinatown to collect information while playing poker with Russian mobsters.


End file.
